Sport England Reveals Mixed Participation Results

The number of people participating in sport at least once a week has maintained numbers of over 15 million, according to Sport England, although the figures have fallen by 200,000 from October’s figures.

15.3 million people played sport between April 2012 and April 2013, down from 15.5 million, but still 1.4 million more playing sport than when London won the Olympic bid in 2005.

British Athletics welcomed the Active People Survey results, with athletics shown to be the sport taken up by the highest number of people over the past seven years. 

Since the Games were awarded to London, athletics has increased participation by 604,200.

The survey shows that the last 12 months has seen a particular surge in track and field participation, with a 25% increase following the London 2012 Games.

However, England Athletics chief executive Chris Jones warned against complacency: ‘We targeted Sport England development funding on assisting our clubs and volunteers to prepare themselves for the likely upsurge in interest around the Games.’ 

‘Our job now is to continue with that support in order to further help clubs keep these new participants in the sport. Sport England funding, in tandem with the tireless efforts of volunteers is the key to sustaining these levels of participation.’

Meanwhile, swimming maintained its position as England’s most popular participation sport, with just under 2.9 million people taking part at least once a week, but football has slipped from second to third place in the table, behind athletics.

More than 1.9 million people played football once a week during 2012/13, a drop from the figure of almost 2.2 million for the season before, which has been credited to poor weather.

The winter saw problems develop for local authorities, who faced difficulties finding the money to maintain pitches damaged by the weather.

There is a participation increase for women, particularly in the sports of boxing and netball, which have helped to drive a year-on-year increase of 89,900 to further narrowing the gender gap in sport.

Figures for disabled people have been rising steadily since 2005, although Sport England added that there was still an unacceptable gap between the number of disabled people and non-disabled people playing sport.

The Sport England figures show that of 29 sports that recorded a change in once-a-week participation figures, nine showed a year-on-year increase, while 20 suffered a decline.

Sport England’s figures – which are compiled twice a year – are for the number of people aged 16 and over playing at least 30 minutes of sport at moderate intensity at least once a week and compiled from telephone interviews with over 160,000 people.